BRE, the world’s leading authority on all aspects of the built environment, has todayannounced the further expansion of BREEAM in partnership with BuildingWise, the award-winning US-based LEED certification consultancy, to create BREEAM USA.

BREEAM is the internationally recognised measure of sustainability for buildings and communities and operates in more than 70 countries. Over 530,000 certificates have been issued under BREEAM on more than 24,000 projects around the world, and over 2.2 million buildings and communities are registered for certification.

The collaboration with BuildingWise provides BRE with a platform on which to further develop BREEAM in the USA, where the focus will be on the BREEAM In-Use standard. There are currently 5.6 million existing commercial buildings in the US that are not currently benchmarking their sustainability efforts using a scientifically-based green building certification.

BuildingWise CEO Barry Giles said, “We are so excited to finally bring BREEAM to the US to open up the option for many of the existing buildings in this country that don’t currently use a building certification program because the available systemsare seen as cumbersome, expensive and require prerequisites that many buildings find impossible to achieve.”

“We are delighted to announce the official launch of BREEAM USA,” commented Gavin Dunn, Global Director of BREEAM. “BREEAM has massive potential in the USA – many of their existing buildings are not equipped for the future and underperform against their potential, wasting resources and unnecessarily impacting the environment. BREEAM USA will help us to address this. It also demonstrates the global value of BREEAM, which is further reinforced with the recent opening of our offices in China and Dubai.”

To learn more about BREEAM USA, please visit www.breeamusa.com